


Late Night Waiting

by hariboo



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-29
Updated: 2012-12-29
Packaged: 2017-11-22 19:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/613466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane didn't often get home late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late Night Waiting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tosca1390](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tosca1390/gifts).



> Advent fic gift.

Jane didn't often get home late. Her work keeps her looking at the stars or in the labs, as she's told him she prefers it, but then there are the conferences or the lectures she sometimes attends on Midgard, and when on Asgard her weekly meetings with his mother occupy a day or two of her week. She doesn't enjoy either as much, but as the progenitor of the Foster Theory and learning the ways the kingdom runs such things are demanded of her time. Thor also knows that out of the both of them he is usually the one that arrives back home at odd hours with, at times, odder injuries. 

Due to her work she keeps odd hours, due to his duties so does he, but more often than not they fall to bed together. Sometimes he is even in their bed before her, but rarely. His need for sleep is not great and can do with two to four hours nightly, a handy thing, as he can keep to her sleepless work filled schedule quiet easily when need be. Which is a usual occurrence, sometimes resulting in him having to pluck her from her labs. Jane sometimes, he muses privately, thinks herself of Asgardian countenance. A fact that is not so; not yet anyway, another of his private thoughts.

Tonight however, he lies alone in bed, wide awake, one arm stretched out to Jane's side. 

They had gotten the call earlier from Tony — he, Jane, Bruce and Darcy would be late in arriving back in the city due to some Hydra related complications. Apparently they had wanted to steal Tony's new prototype and thus tried to steal Tony himself. Thor had almost called down the Bifrost just to have Heimdall direct him to Chicago where the others were, but Steven managed to convince him not to. Thor could not help it his initial reaction, even as ill planned as it was. He worried over Jane's safety, it was another feeling he could not help, but he knew his impulses to protect her had been hastily conceived. Jane and the others not alone in Chicago at any rate; the Fantastic Four had accompanied them. And while Thor did not have any particular sort of affection for Reed Richards, he knew they were worthy allies. 

Still.

Thor looks at the clock by Jane's bed side. 

He has no need for time pieces but Midgard has a fondness for knowing what exact time of day or night it was. 

1:06 AM blinks brightly at him in red. 

Maybe he should ask Jarvis on an update. If any one person or thing would know the current whereabouts of Tony and by default Jane, it would be their electronic overseer. 

Thor sits up and do just that, maybe stop by the kitchen, when the door to the bedroom door opens. 

Jane's silhouette is familiar, and with his eye sight that better than the average human's he can see the slight details that would be missed otherwise. Her shirt is rumpled (she must have slept on the flight back) as is her skirt (she definitely slept on the plane) and she's holding her shoes lazily in her hand (she probably took them off at the door). It does not surprise him. Jane hardly ever wear such high heeled footwear unless she has to. She does not have the weakness for stylised heeled shoes most of the females inhabiting Stark Tower share and that Darcy has been enabling in his mother when Sif had not been as respective. For Jane, who spends so much of her time on her feet rushing from lab to lab, shoes appeared to be a more practical accessory and less of an indulgence. Thor learned that it a fact born less from vanity and more due to funds. A factor less prevalent as of late, but Jane, who will rush head first into a room with an over taxing bastardised arc reactor built by MODOK and help Tony shut it down, is very careful with her money. Though since striking a friendship with Pepper her shoes collection has grown by the striking number of two; a feat for both Jane and Pepper. Overindulgence still makes her uncomfortable, something Pepper, Darcy, and his mother seem hellbent on changing. Thor is not so hellbent on it. Though he is teaching her to accept some of his, at times as others say, extravagant gifts. Pepper herself had said that rubies were a lovely gem.

It is something else he cannot help. He wishes to gift her Yggdrasill herself, and all her secrets. Jane seems content with just ancient texts from the Elves and finding him safe in their home.

In so he notices the exact moment she realises he is still awake. 

Her footsteps falter for a small second before he sees her shoulders relax and he can hear the soft sound of her shoes hitting the carpeted floor. (He can almost imagine Pepper's face wincing at the treatment of the shoes; they with the red soles. He has come to learn that means they are very prized.) Her voice follows, a whisper in the darkness shining like a bright light, "Hey."

"You have returned," he says, sitting up properly, swinging his feet to the floor. 

"You waited up."

Thor smiles. "Always," holds out his hands, "are you well?"

She nods, saying nothing as she walks over to him. The door stays half open behind her, neither care. His hands fall to the gentle curve of her waist over the wrinkled silk. His fingers slide under, seeking, and come to rest just the skirt's edge, thumbs and forefingers brushing over skin. Jane sighs, her hands going to his bare shoulders. She sways into him, but stays on her feet. He palms her ribs.

"Between Bruce, Sue, and Ben, I don't think a single piece of debris touched the air next to me and Darcy." She bites at her lower lip when he reaches for the zipper of her skirt and slides it down. The edges of the dark skirl uncurl from around her like a cocoon freeing a butterfly. To Thor she is a delicate, gentle, and as beautiful as one. Sometimes he hates being reminded of how easily her wings can be broken. And not just her, he remembers. "Is Tony well?"

He holds her hips as the skirt falls from her and she steps out it, kicking it away. 

"Yeah, he's good. One Hydra guy got a good shot in before he pulled the suit on, so he's nursing a black eye." 

Thor hums at the good news, though he had not been overly worried about Tony. Had something truly happen to him Jane's countenance would have been far different when arriving, not to mention the Avengers would have already been alerted. He keeps his attention on working the small buttons of Jane's top. Like the skirt it falls to the floor a few seconds later. Jane's hands leave their post on his shoulders for a brief second before they return to him, this time curving over his jaw. 

"The Lady Pepper must be having some words with him as we speak."

Jane's tired smile is the most wonderful thing in world. "You don't have to call her that when it's just us, you know. " Her undergarments are mismatched white lace and purple cotton; Thor grins, running his hands from her arms to her ribs and hips and up again. "It has become habit, I'm afraid." 

Eyes fluttering, she rolls her head back. "You're lucky she likes it."

"And what of you, my dear Jane?"

She looks down at him, eyes soft and dark. "Hmmm?"

"What does my dear Jane like?" He pulls her closer, so close she has to straddle his thighs and kneel on the bed. Her elbows crook over his shoulders. Her mouth is now level with his. He does not need to look at it to know she is smiling. 

"You, for one," she murmurs, mouth hovering over his, "the fact you undressed me because I would have dropped to the bed fully clothed, that you waited up." She touches their lips together, slow, soft, sleepy, "How you wanted to help us even though you didn't need to, because I know you worry—"

Thor wraps his arms tight around her, one hand reaching up to cup her head. The messy tail she had tied her hair in gets dishevelled further under his fingers; strands fall around her face. She reaches back and pulls her hair free, the strands slide across his hand and her shoulders. 

"If you would take the apple…" he starts, even opening his lips for hers to take what they want, already knowing what she's going to say. It's a worn out conversation (twice a fight) they've already decided on.

"You know I'm not ready yet… And anyway you know it will be different for me, considering what happened before."

"But when you are," he interrupts, because there's a constant weight under his heart over the subject, especially when she hovers too close to the violence that seems to run alongside his life. Once he would have wished for glorious battles each day, now all he wanted was for peace, for him and his loved ones. 

Jane seems to grasp the turmoil he's feeling and tightens her arms around him. Her mouth warm and wet on his. "When I'm ready, you're the first to know. I promise you, deal?"

That small last word settles something within him. He nods, kissing her back. "Deal."

They kiss for what seems hours, but in reality is only a few minutes, until he feels Jane's weight rest even more firmly against him. Her arms go slack around his shoulder, her eyes and limbs grow thick with sleep. Thor pulls back, watching the way her eyes blink open and her mouth quirks upwards, but each movement is laden with the edges of exhaustion. It's been a long day for her.

"So not the home coming you were expecting, huh? Sleepy fiancé who smells like airplane."

"And just a little brandy," Thor grins, rubbing their lips together, one hand drifting up her back to flick open her bra. She hates sleeping in them. He prefers her sleeping out of them as well. Jane's huffs a small tired laugh. 

"Had some on the plane. Tony put it in my hand. Still not sure if it was a victory drink, because my hands were still shaking, or just to put me to sleep." 

She leans back enough to let her bra fall and then presses herself against him again. Thor wraps an arm around her waist and shifts them so they're lying on the bed, the covers around their waists. Jane is all loose limbs at his side and half across his chest. They're sharing the same pillow and facing each other. Thor pushes back some of the hair that has fallen across her face; she does the same to him. 

"I'm glad you waited up," she says. 

"I seldom sleep without you near." It is an ever more growing truth.

"Love you too, charmer." Her eyes are closed, her breathing is evening out, but she smiles. It's the most beautiful smile in the world to Thor. He reaches down and pulls the covers around them, keeping his arm around her waist, and brushes his nose against hers. The hand Jane has resting at his side twitches. Thor closes his eyes.

In the morning, he'll wake first, as he always does, and they'll have switched positions. He'll have move closer to the centre of the bed on his back, limbs akimbo, one arm draped over Jane's waist or back. Jane will be on her stomach, face buried in the mattress or his shoulder, her small feet tucked under his legs — they get so cold at night — one arm wrapped around a pillow the other outstretched. They are exceedingly good (or horrible, depending who you ask) at taking up all the space provided in their beds. When he leaves the bed she'll then curl herself into his pillow until she wakes (if he doesn't wake her, and he rarely does; her normal sleep schedule is, he's learned after several conversion with Bruce and Pepper, almost as unhealthy as Tony's) and by then he'll be ready to join her for breakfast (his second, her first) after his morning training session with Steve. After that their day will continue on as normal as it can for them. But right now, for the smallest of moments, as Thor slides closer to Jane it is as if Yggdrasil is wholly at peace. Thor is smart enough to know the moment a gift and savour it.


End file.
